Yes, but only very recently. I had a long break due to life issues, just getting the final 2 panels prepped for artwork after fixing the unpainted bits... that was a real pain but it's done now. Will post an update after putting the artwork on.

I needed to get the spinners out since I forgot to paint underneath them... raw plywood colour is not nice as a backdrop for edge-lit plexi. 2 spinners needed to come out on the spinner panel. Dremel to the rescue...

Finally got them both out, and sanded the panel flat(ish)...

Then painted the bit I forgot!

Then glued them back in, filled and sanded flat ready for painting...

I also had the same issue with the Defender joystick, where the gold/brassy colour of the joystick housing bled through the edge-lit plexi looking ugly. So, out with the defender joystick too...

And painted it...

Put it back in, sanded and filled ready for painting again...

I have now got the defender panel painted up, and the CPO applied

I'll be re-painting the spinner panel next, and applying that artwork. Then FINALLY all panels will be done, and ready for wiring. I'll try and get that done in 2017!

So this panel has a defender joystick on the left, and a pac-pro leaf 4-way in the middle. The panel will be for defender (obviously), all 2 and 4-way games (plan to enable use of left and right button sets for both right and left handers. Also will be used for games such as asteroids.

I'm having a dilemma with the name... JIMBOVISION fits the artwork theme (I think), but I don't like putting my name on it, I'd prefer something more generic. I've considered all the following but can't decide: -

Got a cheap and nasty 'jig' of sorts built last night... it doubles as a set of shelves to store the panels while I work on them too (ignore the cue rack in the background!). The metal frame of the rotating unit is mounted so the panels will sit at around 10 degrees towards the player, which is what it'll be like in the cab. I expect a load more holes to be cut in the side of this to allow for access to the sides of the rotating unit, for the brake and motor/pulley etc...

Also made a start thinking about the inputs to the ipac ultimate io. Will try and post up a diagram later of the proposed layout.

Played around with some LEDs last night. The IPAC Ultimate has 96 outputs for LEDs, which is not enough for all controls on all panels if I want to go RGB. I have a few options: -

1) Share the joystick LEDs across one IPAC output... i.e. 4 RGB LEDs for a joystick powered by one RGB output on the IPAC (dimmer LEDs)2) Only ever have one panel connected to the IPAC outputs at a time - (may look weird when the panels are rotating)3) Forget RGB and just have white LEDs (which goes with the cab artwork, but won't look as sexy when the lights are off, and I can't then theme the LEDs to the selected game and marquee).4) Put an extra IPAC in there (maybe not enough room, more complicated software setup?, more expensive)

Plan is, on each panel, wire up all the controls and LEDs to one of the above IDC terminal blocks, and daisy chain them together. Then also connect the IPAC to one of them. Luckily there is space for these boards on the backs of the panels! Something like this...

I have worked out that there should also be enough pins to send the USB down the ribbon cable also for the USB controls (spinners/u360). So I should hopefully just have one IDC cable to disconnect whenever I want to get a panel out for working on (well, and LED power/USB connector on the panel with the IPAC).

Gotta wait now for these boards and the 64-pin ribbon cable to come from China now, but in the mean time I'm going to play about with some RGB LEDs to see how bright I can get them lighting up the plexi around the joysticks and spinners (thinking of using some clear casting acrylic to set the LEDs in so there's minimal light bleeding out where I don't want it.

in one of the pictures at the top of the post (Pac-Pro looks great with the edge-lit plexi... feels lovely too...) due to the close up you can see some fine grain in the control panel itself.What material is that board made of (name + some links)? I used vinyl stickers with a acryl panel to protect it but yours is much better looking.

in one of the pictures at the top of the post (Pac-Pro looks great with the edge-lit plexi... feels lovely too...) due to the close up you can see some fine grain in the control panel itself.What material is that board made of (name + some links)? I used vinyl stickers with a acryl panel to protect it but yours is much better looking.

thank you.

Cheers... I got the "textured" CPO from Scott at http://www.gameongrafix.com. It's quite thick and feels great - I'm going to get my side art from here too I think when I'm ready.

BTW, this is the project that I want to use audio-animations with the inactive LEDs... hint hint

So... another small update for the part of this project that is taking ages... sorting out the edge-lit controls. The problem is the spinners are proving difficult to get enough light on the to-be-edge-lit area on the top of the panel.

So first off, we made a test panel...

We then mixed some clear casting resin/catalyst to fill the LED holes and set an LED in each one. 4 clear RGB LEDs and 4 diffused ones.

It became a pain connecting all these LEDs up for testing, so it was made a bit easier...

Unfortunately, the light still was not that great. We think the direction of the LED light is just not directed well enough to the top roughed up plexi.

Plan B... make some clear acrylic "Light Rods" out of casting resin with tapered/angled tops that direct the light more appropriately. You can see the idea here...

First we 3D printed some formers to put in the moulds to make the light rods. We printed a few at different angles to test which worked best. Then we made some silicon moulds from them...

Then we poured some clear casting resin into the moulds (after coating them with mould release agent) and set the LEDs into them (4 diffused, 5 clear).

They are now curing over night. Very curious to see which (if any) direct better light to the spinner edge-lit ring.

All this to get 2 spinners to light up a bit more... phew. Well it's been good fun though and a learning experience.

I think we've solved the issues with lighting up the spinners (and joysticks for that matter)

The lightpipes we made were from 3d printed formers, which we made a mould from and filled with casting acrylic - we tried 5 different steps of angle for the light to exit... 5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 degrees: -

The top area I'm trying to get lit is a small ring around the spinner base...

Here's the underside so you can see where the LEDs go in (x 4):

And here's a crude cross-section drawing to help explain things: -

You can see the light needs to go up at a diagonal angle to get to the roughed up bit of plexi for good edge-lighting. Previous attempts failed to direct the light properly and the plexi ended up very dim - even in a dark room.

So we tried each one but the 60 degree one was the best. This has been covered in tipex apart from the angled bit on the top where the light escapes...

You can see even in daylight, with just 1 LED at low current, the light shines nicely when pointed with the 60 degree light-pipe

Aaand... with the spinner in...

FINALLY happy we can edge light these babies nicely

Next step is to make some optimised proper light-pipes now the concept is proven and we've done a successful test. Once these are done (we'll make lots of spares) I can FINALLY start to wire up these panels...

I would say put some heatshrink tubing on them to help contain the light but it may be fiddly as balls, maybe a paint dip would probably be easier, just getting frog tape on the bit you want to keep clear would be fun. And then whilst typing this I see you edited and have already tipexed